Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 July 1901 — Discouraging Lynching. [ARTICLE]

Discouraging Lynching.

The constitutional convention In Virginia is now considering a resolution to prevent lynching and will probably adopt it. It provides that the governor shall offer a reward of SSOO for the arrest and conviction of every person engaged in lynching; that the act shall constitute murder in the first degree, where the lynching is accomplished; and that the state shall pay SI,OOO to the heirs of any person lynched, the money to be chargeable to the county or city where tne lynching takes place. Such a law would be a drastic remedy, but it undoubtedly reflects public sentiment in Virginia, for, like South Carolina, where a remedy has already been provided, Virginia is but little cursed with lynching and almost universal respect ia shown for the courts.